Computer systems have rapidly supplanted more traditional audio/visual devices (e.g., tape decks, CD and DVD players, record players, VCRs, etc.) as the audio/visual device of choice for storing, organizing and playing audio/visual programs (e.g., pieces of music, recorded lectures, recordings of live performances, movies, slideshows, family pictures, episodes of a television program, etc.). It has become commonplace to use a computer system (whether a full-size desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, etc.) to access a server through a connection to the Internet to retrieve copies of audio/visual programs from Internet websites, and either store them on a storage device of the computer (e.g., a hard drive, an optical disk media, a solid-state storage media, etc.) for later playing or to play them as they are streamed from those servers to the computer. It has also more become commonplace to use a computer system as the audio/visual device from which stored or streamed audio/visual programs are played, instead of playing those audio/visual programs from those more traditional audio/visual devices.
However, the tendency for computer systems to be designed as general purpose devices often results in manufacturers making choices in design trade-offs that create computer systems with screens and/or speakers that are less than optimal in providing high quality visual and audio output. Further, although many computer systems incorporate a built-in capability to directly drive speakers through an internal audio device to acoustically output audio, computer systems tend to be very electrically noisy such that buzzing sounds and other audio artifacts caused by ground loops and other electrical issues tend to be transmitted to such speakers, along with the desired audio. On occasions where a user of a computer system simply desires to listen to the acoustic output of audio while performing some manner of task on a computer system or at least in the vicinity of a computer system, the lesser quality output of a computer system's built in audio capabilities may be deemed by the user to be sufficient, since they are essentially employing that audio as “background” audio. However, at other times where the user of a computer system wishes to have a high quality experience in acoustically outputting audio, there is still a desire to employ at least some forms of more traditional audio/visual devices in which the greater focus in the design of those devices on the function of acoustically outputting audio brings about a higher quality result that the user deems to be more enjoyable.
However, most computer systems of the type likely to be used at the desk of a person at home or in an office employ operating system software (e.g., the Windows series of operating systems purveyed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.) that, like the computer systems themselves, are designed to serve a wide variety of functions and are not designed with a focus on enabling the playing of audio/visual programs with at least high quality acoustic output of audio. Thus, such operating system software tends to be designed with a presumption that a user of a computer system will tend to employ only one form of audio device that is either built into that computer system or that otherwise remains relatively permanently coupled to that computer system in acoustically outputting any audio. And thus, such operating system software tends to be designed with only minimal support for the possibility that a user of a computer system may have more than one audio device incorporated into or otherwise coupled to their computer system to acoustically output audio where they may switch between those audio devices from time to time.